The Bellwether Revivals

Benjamin Wood Press Reviews

'In prose that's unfussy but effortlessly vivid, filled with nice descriptive flourishes (he's good at quite difficult things, such as describing the growing sound of music as it thickens the air of a room), Wood's confident, sometimes creepy novel draws you in - like the faintly heard strain from that hauntingly played pipe-organ - and then, once you're inside, holds on, ever tightening the grip' Independent on Sunday

'Music offers no real cure for sickness, as Oscar slowly and disturbingly discovers.  The bright boy from the sink estate realises the Cambridge set he's been sucked into, in an attempt to ensnare beautiful Iris, is racing towards a terrible danger' Daily Mirror

'In this multi-themed and far-reaching novel, the dichotomies of reason and superstition, sanity and madness, science and faith, are given close and sustained attention … An accomplished novel, suffused with intelligence and integrity. Wood gives voice to theories and ideas in a lucid and accessible way … This skilful novel has flow, pace and a lightness of touch' Guardian

'There's more than a hint of Donna Tartt's The Secret History about this novel, with Cambridge taking the place of Vermont… highly effective'  Daily Mail

'Its lodestone [is] Brideshead Revisited … Donna Tartt's The Secret History is also in the DNA here, and there are echoes of another literary analysis of the unhealthy emotional bond between a brother and sister, L P Hartley's Eustace and Hilda…. The fact that Wood can hold his own in such heavyweight company is a measure of his achievement' Independent